Union Depot, Main and Strong Avenue and Bay State House on Strong Avenue

When completed, the bike trail built on the bed of the old New Haven to Northampton canal and subsequent rail tracks will be the longest interstate rail trail in the Northeast, and the trail along the bed of the old Mass Central Railroad from Boston to Northampton will be the longest trail in New England.

Craig Della Penna will talk about the history of the corridors, their transformation from rail-to-trail, and the cultural and economic impact of these high-profile projects.

He will illustrate his talk with ”then-and-now” archival and contemporary photos from his extensive collection, including rare photos of the neighborhood of the former Norwood Engineering Company complex in Florence, which is the subject of this month’s exhibit at Historic Northampton. A railroad project that the Norwood Engineering Company needed jump-started Calvin Coolidge’s career! Della Penna will also discuss and show photos of Florence’s “Stonehenge,” a railroad spur that allowed boxcars to enter one of the town's large brick buildings.

Map of the Northampton area

New York, New Haven and Hartford Trainfreight depot on King Street in Northampton

Map of the Boston & Maine railroad in western MA, 1930

About the SpeakerAfter an earlier career in the railroad industry, Craig Della Penna was a political organizer and lobbyist from 1998 to 2004 with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a national non-profit based in Washington DC. Since 2005 he has been Executive Director of Northeast Greenway Solutions, a consulting firm that helps communities convert former steam railroad or electric trolley corridors into linear parks, and Manager of Central Highlands Conservancy, a land acquisition vehicle that prevents the sale of former railroad corridors in Massachusetts to adjoining land owners. He is the author of five books, including Great Rail-Trails of the Northeast: Guide to 26 Rec Trails and their RR History (1995), 24 Great Rail-Trails of New Jersey (1998), Rails-to-Trails: New York: The Official Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Guidebook (2002), Images of America: HOLYOKE (1998) and Images of America: FLORENCE (2013) with Jason A Clark. He is also a realtor with The Murphys Realtors, specializing in houses near walking or biking pathways and in historic and antique houses. With his wife, he owns the Sugar Maple Trailside Inn, a bed and breakfast in Florence.